Sensitive Issue

Parking is a sensitive issue on our street; it makes or breaks neighbours. When fights erupt between houses, it's usually over parking. Even neighbours who are friends get into yelling matches over who has the right to park where.

There was The Man and the house across the street who used to drive a tow-truck with a handicap sticker. The Man got the police to crack down on handicap sticker abuse in the city because of their fight.

There is the neighbour who was in a hurry and needed to leave her home when her drive was blocked by an emergency hydro truck that her next door neighbour called in. She pounded on his door to tell him to move the truck, he punched her, she wacked him with an ice scraper, they both called the police, the police charged her with assault with a weapon, she sued him, they ended up in court, the police dropped their charges, his wife left him, neighbour moved away.

Further up the street, one neighbour's car blocked another neighbour's drive. A third neighbour happened to drive up and muttered, "Idiot." The guy who blocked the drive got off his porch to start a fight with the third neighbour.

Another neighbour went out with her mother. But she forget something so parked her car on the street, left her mother in the car, and ran back into her house. Just at that moment, the neighbour whose drive she was blocking came home. Oh the obscenities that young woman hurled at the mother in the car! And they say I swear like a truck driver.

Another neighbour doesn't have front pad parking. But he can squeeze his car into his shared drive. He came home one day to find no parking on the street. So he squeezed his car into the shared drive to unload his things. His neighbour who shared the drive immediately came out and told him he couldn't park there. Neighbour 1 said he was just unloading his stuff and will move the car when he's done. Neighbour 2 said but you aren't supposed to park there, what if there is an emergency and I need to get into my car? Neighbour 1 said is there an emergency and do you need to get into your car? Neighbour 2 said no but if there was an emergency, I wouldn't be able to get into my car right now because you are blocking it. The screaming match that took place after that!

Another neighbour screamed at her neighbour across the street because his car had blocked hers. I don't know the details. I heard about the yelling after. Her brother and mother are very friendly with that house across the street.

And then there is me. When we didn't have a car, I let all my neighbours park in our parking spot. They always asked first and I always said yes. Now that I have a car again, I use my parking spot. But we had an electrician in this week. He parked in my neighbour's front pad. I immediately phoned her to get her okay and said I would move my car down the street soon as a spot becomes available. She was okay with that. But then her son and his friends have parked on my pad before. I saw her the next day as I was going out. She had just parked her car on the street jutting half way out to the middle. We've lost many parking spots to snow piles. I said to her, Park on my pad, I won't be back till late. She said that's okay, I'll be leaving again soon anyway. I keep trying.